Dear Zen Friends,

 We will be sitting tonight at 7:00.  Today, the reading from Phillip Kapleau’s The Three Pillars of Zen this week will be Part One, Section III, Student I. 

The case for today (From Meredith)

This week’s case is another short one. Last week’s case (Gateless
Gate #30) was: “Damei asked Mazu in all earnestness, ‘What is Buddha?’
Mazu answered, ‘The very mind is Buddha.’”

This week’s case is Gateless Gate (Mumonkan), #33. “A monk asked Mazu
in all earnestness, ‘What is Buddha?’ Mazu replied, ‘No mind, No
Buddha.’”

Background:
Mazu (8th generation, b. 709, discliple and dharma heir of Nanyue, b.

677. Mazu had at least 13 dharma heirs. One of his dharma heirs was
Nanquan — and Nanquan’s dharma heir, Zhaozhou, was the one who said
“Mu” when asked if a dog has dharma nature. Another of Mazu’s heirs
was Baizhang, whose heir was Huangbo, whose heir was Linji, aka Rinzai,
from which Rinzai Zen is derived. Damei (9th generation, b. 752) was
another of Mazu’s disciples at the time of this conversation. He would later
become Mazu’s dharma heir.

See all the posts at: http://blog.uuzen.org
 With a gassho and a bow!  Dan

UU Zen Center
at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
4425 NW 34th St.
Gainesville

UU Zen Center will be sitting tonight - 7:00 - 9:00pm. We’ll be discussing Kapleau’s “Three Pillars of Zen,” and the case of the week.

The Case: Gateless Gate (Mumonkan) #30:

Damei asked Mazu in all earnestness, “What is Buddha?”
Mazu answered, “The very mind is Buddha.”

Background:
Mazu (8th generation, b. 709, discliple and dharma heir of Nanyue, b. 677. Mazu had at least 13 dharma heirs. One of his dharma heirs was Nanquan — and Nanquan’s dharma heir, Zhaozhou, was the one who said “Mu” when asked if a dog has dharma nature. Another of Mazu’s heirs was Baizhang, whose heir was Huangbo, whose heir was Linji, aka Rinzai, from which Rinzai Zen is derived. Damei (9th generation, b. 752) was another of Mazu’s disciples at the time of this conversation. He would later become Mazu’s dharma heir.

With gassho and a bow to you all,
-Meredith

Dear Zen Friends,

 We will be sitting tonight at 7:00.  Today, the reading from Phillip Kapleau’s The Three Pillars of Zen this week will be Part One, Section III, Student G.  I don’t have my schedule with me, so I don’t know if student G is a 2-parter or not.

The case for today (From Meredith)

19. Emperor Dai Zong Asks About the Style of the Pagoda.
Blue Cliff Record #18, Book of Equanimity #85

Emperor Dai Zong (reigned 762-779) asked Nanyang Huizhong, “When you are
a hundred years old, what shall I do for you?”
Nanyang answered, “Make a seamless pagoda for this old monk.”
The emperor said, “I should like to ask you, what style is it to be?”
Nanyang remained silent for a while. And then he said, “Do you understand?
“No, I do not,” said the emperor.
“I have a disciple called Danyuan” (Danyuan Yingzhen), said Nanyang,
“who has the Dharma Seal transmitted by me. He is well versed in this
matter. Ask him please.”
After Nanyang’s death, the emperor sent of Danyuan and asked him
 about it.
Danyuan said:
South of Xiang, and north of Tan
In between, gold abounds.
The ferryboat under the shadowless tree,
No holy one in the emerald palace you see.

With a gassho and a bow!

Dan

Dear Zen Friends,

 We will be sitting tonight at 7:00, and don’t forget the Zen Circle of Friends at 5:30 in the common room.  Today, the reading from Phillip Kapleau’s The Three Pillars of Zen this week will be Part One, Section III, Student F.

The case for today (From Meredith)

Nanyang and the Water Jug. From the Book of Equanimity (Shoyoroku),
 #42

A monk asked National Teacher Huizhong of Nanyang, “What is the
essential body (the “Dharma-body” or dharmakaya) of Vairocana
 Buddha?”
[i.e., “What is the absolute?”]
National Teacher said, “Pass me that water jug.”
The monk passed him the water jug.
National Teacher said, “Put it back where it was.”
The monk asked again, “What is the essential body of Vairocana
 Buddha?”
National Teacher said, “The old Buddha is long gone.”

With a gassho and a bow,

 Dan

Greetings dear friends!

We will be sitting this week on Friday, January 25, at 7:00PM.
Again, to catch up and get back on schedule, we are doubling up on the reading.  For this time, the reading from Phillip Kapleau’s The Three Pillars of Zen this week will be Part One, Section III, Students D and E.  After this, we are back on schedule

Zen friends: This week’s case is from the Blue Cliff Record
(Hekiganroku) (Biyan lu), #99:

Nanyang Huizhong (b. ca. 675?) became the National Teacher and went to
live near the Emperor and be his teacher. He was teacher to at least two
emperors, including Su Tsung, who reigned 756-762.

Case:
Emperor Su Tsung asked the Nanyang Huizhong, “What is the ten-bodied
herdsman?”
Huizhong said, “Go trampling on Vairocana’s head!”
The emperor said, “I cannot follow you.”
Huizhong said, “Don’t take the self for the pure Dharma body.”

Notes:
“Ten-bodied herdsman” is a reference to the Buddha. The ten bodies are
his attributes. Various scriptures give different versions of what these
ten attributes are. (One set, for example, is: no-attachment,
vowing-to-save-all-beings, wisdom, positive, nirvana, dharma, mindful,
samadhi, nature, and easy.) The emperor is asking: What is Buddha?

“Vairocana” refers to the Dharmakaya (Dharma body) Buddha — that is,
the absolute Buddha.

This notice, and others from the past are archived on the web at blog.uuzen.org (thanks Joyce)

With a Gashho and Bow,

Dan

Greetings,

We will be sitting this week on Friday, January 18, at 7:00PM.
We are going to try to catch up and get back on schedule, so the reading from Phillip Kapleau’s The Three Pillars of Zen this week will be ALL of Part One, Section III, Student C.

This week’s case is Gatless Gate (Wumen Guan) #17:
“The national teacher [Huizhong, d. 775] called his attendant three times, and three times his attendant responded.
The national teacher said, ‘I thought I was standing alone with my back to you, but now I find that you are standing alone with your back to me.‘”

This notice, and others from the past are archived on the web at www.blog.uuzen.org

With a Gashho and Bow,

Dan

Hello Sangha,
We will have our weekly Zen practice today, January 11, at 7pm at the Unitarian Universalist church.  Because of the holidays, I am uncertain as to where we are in our reading. Look forward to seeing you soon!
With a gassho and a bow,
Shana

Today’s case is #29 from the Gateless Gate (Wumen Guan):

The wind was flapping a temple flag, and two monks were having an
argument about it. One said, “The flag is moving.” The other said,
 ”The wind is moving.” They argued back and forth but could not reach the
truth. The Sixth Patriarch said, “It is not the wind that moves. It
 is not the flag that moves. It is your mind that moves.” The two monks
 were struck with awe.

Dear Zen Friends:

On Friday Jan 4, we will have a special ceremony to invite the
freshness
of the new year into our lives. After our usual two sits, we will
have
only one chant — the Heart Sutra — then immediately serve the tea.
Tana Silva and a CD from Thich Nhat Hanh will then lead us through an

exercise of 5 prostrations. It’s an exercise of relaxation and deep
connection with the earth. Our schedule of reading from Kapleau’s
“Three
Pillars of Zen” will resume next week, on Jan 11.

With gassho and bows to you all,
-Meredith

Zen friends,

I won’t be able to be there for Zen practice on this Friday (Dec 28). Who is planning to attend?

Let me know so we can ascertain who’ll take responsibility for opening up and locking up (or, if no one is planning to attend, we’ll let folks know it’s been cancelled.)

With gassho and bow to you all — Merry Christmas,
-Meredith

If there will be childcare, Jenny and I will be there.  I can probably come by myself if there is no childcare and open the place up.  Will anyone else be there?
 
Dan

We’ll be sitting in the Common Room starting at 7:00. The VFP
(Veterans For
Peace) concert starts at 8:00. Those who wish to see the entire VFP
(Veterans for Peace) show can slip out at 8:00 and walk over to the
sanctuary. There is an admission fee — sliding scale according to
ability
to pay — $5 to $20, I believe. If you want to see the second half of
the
show, you can wait until we’ve had our closing bows and then go over.
That’s
what I’ll be doing (I have a speaking part in the second half of the
event.)With gassho and bow to you all,
-Meredith